Team Cyanosis leaves for Tasmania tonight to compete at the World Adventure Racing Championships. Regular team members Nathan Thompson and Nicholas Mulder will be joined by two very experienced adventure racers from the south coast, in the form of John Collins and Jeannette Walder-Wylie (a.k.a. Bubbles). Both have extremely extensive adventure racing backgrounds at international level, with John famous for his exploits with Team Mazda at Eco-Challenge Fiji (4th) and in the 2005 AR World Champs (5th). ‘Bubbles’ also has an extensive racing pedigree, having competed in Primal Quest in the USA, Wilderness ARC in Scotland as well as Bull of Africa and Expedition Africa races.
The team will face a 700km long expedition course across the wilds of Tasmania. The race is unsupported, so teams face a gruelling 5 to 10 days out in the terrain, only occasionally coming across their re-supply and equipment boxes. Racing is non-stop, with only a 6 hour compulsory rest stop enforced at mid-way. The race will feature mountain biking, trekking and running, ocean and river kayaking as well as rope works sections. The course will remain unknown till shortly before the start of the race.
As usual, there will be satellite tracking of the 80 teams that are participating, so please follow them online (we will be Team #22) via the live website (www.xpd.com.au). Regular updates to the team’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/team.cyanosis) will be sent by the team pre- and post-race, as well as comments and notes from back home as the team progresses around the course. Look out for fellow South African team Merrell Adventure Addicts as well, who are racing as team # 4.
Cyanosis are looking forward to the race, with strong hopes of finishing in a good position in the field. The combined experience in the team, together with strong team members in all of the running, cycling and paddling disciplines should serve them well. The team has already competed in the previous two World Championship events. In 2009 in Portugal, the team placed 22nd and in 2010 in Spain, the team were 13th. Both these results were disappointments and the team will definitely want to break into the Top 10 rankings this year. The team members are all currently in good form, with John having recently finished in 5th place on The Otter 42km Trail Run, whilst Nathan and Nicholas raced in the Cyanosis team that won the Kinetic Full Moon 120km race in Middelburg two weeks ago.
The race starts on the morning of Wednesday 2 November. The top teams are expected to complete the course in 5 to 6 days, with the remainder of the field given 10 days to cross the finish line.
Team Cyanosis is proud to have the following brands supporting them:
– First Ascent outdoor apparel, Salomon adventure footwear, Petzl headlamps and Foodstate vitamins and supplements.
– Specialized bikes and accessories, Summit Cycles in Midrand, Form and Fitness sports supplements, Suunto field compasses and wrist-top computers, O’Neill wetsuits and Island Tribe sun lotion.
For information on Team Cyanosis, profiles on team members, team news and photo galleries, please visit our team website at www.teamcyanosis.co.za
www.facebook.com/team.cyanosis